A couple of weeks ago I got a new to me (slightly used) 2nd generation P-3AT. I gave the ramp a little polishing, cleaned it good and lubed it. Today it had it's first shakedown cruise at the range. 50 rounds of S&B FMJ and seven more rounds of Federal Personal Defense High Energy Low Recoil HPs. The Kel Tec ate it all without a hiccup.
I started with one round then checked the gun, then ran a couple of magazines at ten feet. It grouped well POA. I expected a snappier recoil, but it was less than either my 9mm moonclipped snubnose Taurus or my Bulgarian Makarov. I had a Hogue slip on grip that slipped a bit by the second magazine, preventing the third one from slamming home, so I took it off and found it didn't make that much difference. The third mag was rapid fire point shooting, it held a six inch group center of mass. After that, came a mag right hand alone (I'm a righty) then another left hand alone. The right hand grouped fine, the left hand had two flyers. Moving out to twenty feet I was able to hold combat accuracy both sighted and point shooting. Then out to thirty, slow sighted fire, I noticed I was shooting low. My guess was that squeezing down hard on the small, light weapon had something to do with it. Concentrating on the support hand helped. After finishing the S&B, I brought out the partial box of Federal I got at my buddy's gun shop. (He's always getting partial boxes of ammo on trades and from estates etc. and I always take advantage
) It had 14 rounds so I figured I'd try seven and save seven. At fifteen feet two things happened. The group was the tightest by far and the spent cases flew back over my shoulder and landed close to each other. The S&B cases flew a bit higher and went all over.
I'm planning on running 150 more rounds of range ammo through it as well as trying out some other defensive rounds before settling on one and carrying it.
What a great gun. It's a lot of fun, felt just right in my hand and pointed as naturally as my Hi Power. Funny, when I was holding it at home, I thought it would be hard with that small grip, but on the range it was fine even without the Hogue. I'm thinking about getting one of the Kel Tec high cap mags (I can't remember exactly...9 rounds?) Any thoughts on those? That and any other pointers would be appreciated. Mike.
